Actor-author Deepti releases book, terms it a love letter to her parents

Chandigarh, July 20

The Prabha Khaitan Foundation, a non-profit trust, organised The Write Circle session of actor-author Deepti Naval here today.

Deepti launched her new book, “A Country Called Childhood: A memoir”, in Delhi, Mumbai and then Amritsar (on July 18) where she had spent 19 years. As she sets foot in Chandigarh on Wednesday evening for an interactive session with conversationalist Vivek Atray, it throws light on multifaceted Deepti’s other sides – the observationist and the philosopher. Almost two decades of working on her memoir, the author focuses mostly on her childhood unlike other stars who have chosen to tell all big stories of their life through memoirs or autobiographies.

The reason she says, “The photographic memories and stories embedded in her mind had lived in subconscious all her life. I find tough to remember by intricate details of my young and present life, but not the childhood. Also often when your start with one old memory, it rips open many others, hence the result.”

Just like the cover of her memoir with a black and white picture of her younger self, not much has changed in real as she wore a black and white saree to the event. On being dressed so simple, she quips, “Simplicity is the style statement I chose for myself. All colours are inside me.”

For that matter, Deepti has convincingly put those colours out through her creative pursuits, be it acting, writing or painting.

The audience was curious and enthusiastic about asking its questions to the author in a book-signing session.

Previously written three books, Lamha Lamha (1981), Black Wind and Other Poems (2004), The Mad Tibetian: Stories From Then and Now, and now a memoir, she hints at something on her film career in the book format is in her mind.

As she talks about being an old soul who learnt through her mother’s stories of displacement (first from Burma because of the 2nd World War, then from Lahore due to the Partition) that loss is part of life, Deepti believes one is not always ready for it, but as you come across loss you know it’s part and parcel of life. The actress lost her mother in 2017 and calls her book a love letter to her parents.

“The only tragedy of this book is that once it is out, my parents are not here to read it, else it’s a happy childhood full of memories of Amritsar (Ambarsar),” she signs off.